Bentley: Well, We Could Have Shown A Sports Car At Geneva

When Wolfgang Durheimer became the CEO of Bentley last February, he set out to expand the range from the current pair of vehicle platforms; the Mulsanne and the Continental/Flying Spur. One of those vehicles was the EXP 9 F concept shown at Geneva.

But there were a few more vehicles in the running Durheimer told Motor Trend, but wouldn’t go into detail except for one. The one happens to be a smaller sports car. Durheimer says the designers at Bentley were keen to do it. However, the decision was made to do the SUV.

“In the end the SUV was a better idea. It sits above all its competition,” Durheimer said. “The sports car would have had the Porsche 911 Turbo as opposition.”

Durherimer knows how tough the 911 Turbo is, he was the head of Porsche’s R&D before becoming Bentley’s CEO.

However, Durherimer hasn’t ruled out the sports car for the time being. He says the model of the sports car sits outside the office of company design director Dirk van Braeckel.

Kinda sad that they are willing to ditch the V8. I Hope that GM/Ford/FCA does not make the same error, especially when it comes to trucks. . . . at least until BEVs can really carry the load of a typical full-size pickup.